Sam Francis
American, 1923 - 1994Atelier Mourlot
American, New YorkUntitled, 1968
Not on view
Lithograph on paper
Dimensions29 1/8 × 21 1/4 in. (74 × 54 cm)
Museum purchase, 1968.9
While bedridden with a spinal injury during his service in the Air Force, Sam Francis began to paint. His later painting, though abstract, still reflect his preoccupation with anatomy in their freeform compositions of corpuscles and bone-like patterns. He selects primary colors and applies them with spontaneous bursts of energy, creating vibrant areas of color against pure white raw canvas. Blots, stains and drips in their unaltered state all became part of the final product. Islands of color seem to radiate outward from the center in centrifugal movement, and in the overall composition, open spaces become as important as painted areas. The total effect is explosive yet remarkably flat and texture-free. A native of San Mateo, California, where he was born in 1923, Sam Francis was educated in the Bay Area, receiving his BA and MA at the University of California, Berkley. An accomplished painter, Francis did not begin making lithographs until 1960.
